U.S. Pacific Command commander Adm. Harry Harris on Feb. 25, 2016 addressing reporters in the Pentagon. DoD News Image
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The head of U.S. forces in the Pacific has not received any official word from Manila to change its defense relationship with the Philippines – despite months of statements to the contrary from firebrand President Rodrigo Duterte. Read More
THE PENTAGON — Much is still unknown about how President-elect Donald Trump will approach defense and foreign policy issues upon taking office in January, given the less than clear and at times contradictory campaign rhetoric over the past 17 months. Read More
Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus speaks with Randy Forbes in Forbes’ office on June 13, 2013. Forbes is the likely pick for a Trump administration Secretary of the Navy. US Navy Photos
THE PENTAGON — An advocate for a 350-ship Navy and $20-billion annual shipbuilding budgets and a vocal opponent of Chinese aggression in the Western Pacific will likely be the pick for the next Secretary of the Navy in a Donald Trump Administration, USNI News has learned. Read More
A soldier with the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) during the Rim of the Pacific 2014 Exercise. US Navy Photo
Japanese and U.S. forces are set to stage amphibious exercises off of Guam and Tinian as part of a series of bilateral drills that kicked off this week. Read More
Aircraft CF-02, an F-35 Lightning II Carrier Variant attached to the F-35 Pax River Integrated Test Force (ITF) assigned to Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23 completes a flyover of the guided-missile destroyer USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000). US Navy Photo
The driving concept behind the Pentagon’s Third Offset Strategy comes down to : If we’re not changing, we’re losing to “pacing competitors” like Russia and China in conventional warfare. Read More
USS Mason (DDG-87) pulls into the Port of Djibouti escorted by Coastal Riverine Squadron 8 Sea Ark patrol boats on July 23, 2016. US Navy Photo
The Navy should prepare for a future operating environment where anti-ship weapons propagate globally and attacks such as the recent ones against guided-missile destroyer USS Mason (DDG-87) are more commonplace, one the service’s top budget officials said. Read More
Guided-missile destroyer USS Decatur (DDG-73) operates in the South China Sea on Oct. 13, 2016
A U.S. warship has conducted a freedom of navigation operation near Chinese holdings in the South China Sea, a U.S. defense official confirmed to USNI News. Read More
USS Mason (DDG-87) fires an SM-2 during a March 2016 exercise. US Navy Image
This is the first of two opinion pieces examining the Iran nuclear deal and the recent attacks in Yemen.
The recent spate of Yemeni Houthi rebel anti-ship missile attacks in the strategically important littorals near the Bab el-Mandeb strait, have drawn America’s attention to Yemen’s bitter civil war. Read More
China’s compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) tribunal’s ruling regarding rights, activities and entitlements in the South China Sea is much less certain than one might expect, we concluded in a previous post at Lawfare. By our analysis, there are no reports that China has taken actions in clear violation of nine of fifteen rulings handed down by the tribunal. Therefore, while China is not in “compliance” with the arbitral award, neither is it in complete “non-compliance.” Read More
A Tomahawk Land Attack Missile Launched from USS Nitze late Wednesday night. US Navy Image
This post has been updated with additional comments from Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson.
A Navy guided missile destroyer launched an attack against three radar sites in Yemen with Tomahawk cruise missiles in response to recent attacks on U.S. ships in the region, the Pentagon announced late Wednesday. Read More
